OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Curios and Stories CLIPPER SICKLE MOWER - USA - circa Late 19th Centu

Hi ODK members,

In researching vintage mowers some unusual machines crop-up from time to time.
Generally they are found by accident.

I was researching Suffolk 'Clipper' mowers when I found an article from the
Australian Town and Country Journal from 25 August, 1888.
That article described an "Improved Lawn Mower" [see below].

Further investigation revealed that it was an American "Clipper", made by the Clipper
Lawnmower Company of Dixon, Illinois - a town associated with its 'most famous son',
Ronald Reagan . . . [say no more]. [see http://www.discoverdixon.org/]

Here is a YouTube clip of one:-



[video][/video]

This would have been quite an inefficient machine as a push mower.
Sickle bar mowers really need horse power to make them work, and in history,
that is exactly what happened. The efficient reel mower ruled supreme over
domestic grasses . . . at least 'till the late 1940s.

Below is the 1888 article from an Australian newspaper.

The Clipper lawnmower Company must have had some success.
I have found that they were sold on our shores as well!

This machine got publicity in AUS newspapers again in the early 20th Century.
I have evidence they sold here up to the late 1920s.



Below is an American Price List of unknown date.
It would be early 20th Century though.
Note that the company also made marine engines.

It's amazing how these oddities turn up.
An envelope was auctioned in late 2013 for a Clipper Lawn Mower Co.
envelope. By 1923 we know they were also making marine & stationary engines.

All very interesting.
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JACK